A calling to give back

North­eastern senior Amanda Britton, who has worked for two years with dis­ad­van­taged youth through sev­eral North­eastern Uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity pro­grams, has won a com­pet­i­tive teaching job with the national non­profit Teach for America.

For two years after grad­u­ating this spring, she’ll be teaching math in the Bal­ti­more public schools.

A psy­chology major, Britton hadn’t con­sid­ered a career in teaching until an observer of her men­toring work encour­aged her in that direction.

“I was told I was crazy if I didn’t become a teacher,” she said.

She decided to apply to Teach for America after finding her inter­ests closely matched the mis­sion of the orga­ni­za­tion, which places col­lege grad­u­ates in teaching posi­tions in low-​​income communities.

Britton is among a select few to be offered a job with Teach for America. Although this year’s fig­ures aren’t avail­able, last year just 12 per­cent of the 46,000 stu­dents who applied were accepted, said Kaitlin Gas­rock, spokesperson for the nonprofit.

During a co-​​op last spring with Northeastern’s Youth Devel­op­ment Ini­tia­tive Project, Britton tutored teens from low-​​income Boston fam­i­lies, tracking their grades and inter­vening with teachers, par­ents and coun­selors to solve aca­d­emic prob­lems. She also taught classes on how to write college-​​level essays and how to pre­pare for the SAT vocab­u­lary test.

She also has put in 80 hours of vol­un­teer work over the past year for Strong Women Strong Girls, which empowers women and girls through com­mu­nity involve­ment and social awareness.

Britton said she’s excited about her new teaching oppor­tu­nity. “I’ve always wanted to help people,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I didn’t live in poverty per se, but my mom cleans houses and my dad’s a mechanic. My teachers moti­vated me, and my par­ents moti­vated me. I wanted to give back.”

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